Zim deletes contentious clause that unnerved mining investors

Image credit: advogadoaguilar (Pixabay) Zimbabwe has capitulated under pressure as it deleted a clause in the amendment to the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, which recently unnerved investors who viewed it as a clandestine return of the controversial 51-49% ownership structure in the mining industry.
The Economic Governance Watch had recently opined that the Finance (No. 2) Bill, which sailed through Parliament in mid-December 2020, allows the minister of industry and trade to reserve particular sectors of the mining industry for indigenous miners, and can give effect to that decision simply by consulting two colleagues – the minister of mines and mining development and the minister of finance and economic development.
"In fact, [under] section 21(2) (a) of the Interpretation Act, she could designate all minerals, thereby reserving the entire mining industry to indigenous control," it said.
The Zimbabwean government responded to these concerns Tuesday evening by deleting the insertion in a bid to "enhance certainty [concerning] investments in the mining sector".
It also said the requirement for 51% of the shareholding of businesses involved in the extraction of platinum and diamonds to be owned through a designated entity has been removed through the amendment to the Empowerment Act.
"There are no minerals the extraction of which require a business extracting same to have 51% of its shareholding being owned by a designated entity," said the Zimbabwean government.
"This is consistent with the government position that there is no mineral, the extraction of which, the government requires mandatory shareholding participation through a designated entity."

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished